Daffodils or the Death of Love

by Corinne Demas Bliss

 

Short story collection Published by University of Missouri Press, 1983  103 pages Breakthrough Contest Winner Contents Reviews How to Get This Book

          Daffodils or the Death of Love is a collection of stories remarkable for its variety and its invention.  Corinne Demas Bliss creates situations at once life-like and eccentric, situations it is her task to describe though never to explain.  Out of these situations come small insights, moments of sadness, sudden leaps of perspective—precisely the treasure that one expects from good stories in the realistic mode. In fact, one feels about Corinne Bliss that she is a story writer through and through, that she has an uncanny gift for elaborating a structure, a narrative outline that will enable her to achieve exactly what she means to achieve—nothing more, nothing less . . Always what one marvels at as one moves through this book is the fertility of a mind that can come up now with this fine story-idea now with another . . In all, a very satisfying collection by a writer with a fine ear, an observant eye, and a very lively future.

--Robert Boyers, Editor-in-Chief, Salmagundi

 Breakthrough Contest Judge, University of Missouri Press

Contents 

Peter Rabbit

Eastbound Platform

Lester Schwabb I, II, III, IV & V

Pizza

Slow Moose

Secrets

Anna

Daffodils or the Death of Love

Lifelines

Some of the stories in this collection first appeared in the following publications:

“Peter Rabbit” (originally titled “Roommates”), Esquire
“Lester Schwabb I, II, III, IV & V,” Ploughshares
“Slow Moose,” Transatlantic Review
“Daffodils or the Death of Love,” The Agni Review
“Pizza” (retitled “Consuming Passion”) was published in Mademoiselle

 For additional information about these published stories, consult Corinne Demas Bibliography, Short Stories.

Reviews

          Corinne Demas Bliss’s special gift is to render through delicate description, without hint of explanation, stories of rare insight, that come to us in the tones of conversation, as if over coffee and the tinkling of spoons. . . lovely, observant, realistic stories.

--The North American Review

          There are nine equally compelling stories, mostly set in the East.  Various sensitive and appealing characters appear in the stories . . the strength, quality, and the nature of emotional attachments are explored with subtle  variation. . . Nothing holds still, we are reminded, and in these stories we get glimpses of our desperate and yet resilient attempts to make the most of the moment. . . The characters in these stories fascinate because of what they do with the inevitable changes and losses that occur.

--Studies in Short Fiction

Fans of Bliss’s novel The Same River Twice may be interested in these short stories of ambiguous emotions.  In one, a woman’s visit to her parents confirms her suspicions that her mother’s disapproval will make their relationship one of frustration and anger, though her dutiful periodic visits will continue.  In another, a college instructor falls in love with her most annoying student.  In still another, a woman hibernates in her bed “sleeping it through,” after leaving her daughter to spend the weekend with her ex-husband.  The stories are unresolved—as are the emotional conflicts within each character—yet each is satisfying as Bliss describes rather than tells, leaving small discoveries and conclusions to the reader.

--Booklist

 

How to Get This Book

Daffodils or the Death of Love was published by the University of Missouri Press in 1983.

Although it is no longer in print, a limited number of autographed copies are available through backinprint.com.